IngredientUnveiling the Essential Elements of Food

To Ali Bouzari, a culinary scientist with a PhD in food biochemistry, there’s a big difference between ingredients and Ingredients. In his first book, Bouzari breaks down the eight building blocks of food: water, sugar, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, minerals, gases, and heat. These “invisible moving parts” are key to controlling the best outcome of your next dish. Bouzari explains the science behind common cooking conundrums, and how to fix them. But don’t worry—though the tome is technical, you won’t need to dig out a table of elements to understand the concepts.

This article originally appeared in Sous-Vide magazine’s Spring/Summer 2017 issue.